Elliff Charges Students To Heed God's Call

Elliff charges students to heed God's call

RIVERSIDE (Sept. 21, 2012) —"Two people per second will die in this world without hearing the name of Jesus,"
Tom Elliff told students at California Baptist University Friday. "Is there anybody
in this world who has a legitimate reason to expect that you're coming to give them
good news?"

Elliff, president of the International Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention,
asked students in chapel services at CBU to embrace the next thing God showed them
about missions.

"If in this room alone we had people willing to respond to God's call," he said,
"we could have the generation who could change the world. God is asking for our all.
He's asking for everything."

The CBU community is currently preparing for the Oct. 10 application deadline for
International- and United States Service Projects, two programs that send faculty,
staff and student volunteers to serve on global and domestic mission fields. Last
summer, the university launched the 300th volunteer team in the program's 16th season.

Elliff told the audience to focus on three words when contemplating mission work
– hear, hurry and heed. He urged listeners to open their ears to what God wanted to
tell them, to not let their hearts harden to what God was telling them regarding mission
work, and to hurry in their effort to do His work.

"If you are hard-hearted, you are hard-hearted because you decided to be," Elliff
said. "Not one person in the Bible is famous for what they thought or felt. They're
famous for what they did."

As a missionary with his wife in Zimbabwe from 1981 to 1983 and during his travels
as president of the International Mission Board, Elliff said he has seen parts of
the world desperate for God.

"What are you supposed to be?" Elliff asked. "You're supposed to be Jesus in those
situations."

Elliff challenged students to inquire immediately about opportunities for service.

"This could absolutely change the course of Christian mission if you are serious
about this," Elliff said to those who stood in answer to his challenge. "There are
people who need Christ here and all around the world."

Elliff compared God's call to a key he pulled out of his pocket.

"This key is made to fit in one place," he said. "I can do lots of things with it—tear
paper or poke holes—but it only works the way it's intended to work if I use it to
start the ignition of my car. So, too, God has a specific plan for your life. Today
if you hear His voice, don't harden your heart."